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Bucs stockpile pitchers in 2010 Draft

Bucs stockpile pitchers in 2010 Draft

PITTSBURGH -- The old adage in baseball is that a team can never have too much pitching.

The Pirates certainly abided by that in the 2010 First-Year Player Draft, taking 32 pitchers over three days and 50 picks.

General manager Neal Huntington felt the situations his team was often in during each round presented the opportunities to stock up on the young arms.

"We feel like we played to the strength of the Draft," Huntington said. "It was a pitching-oriented Draft, high school and college, and as we looked at each pick we had a handful of players in consideration, took the player we felt best about and, in a number of situations, it was a group of high school pitchers to choose from, and rather than reaching way down the board just to get a position player drafted, we took another pitcher.

"And it looks a little odd, and it was aggressive, but pitching is a game of attrition. We can never have enough of it. And we feel like our pitching coaches and our player development system is equipped to handle pitchers' development, and we're excited about the arms we were able to add today."

Twenty-six of the 32 pitchers the Pirates drafted are right-handers, and 20 of the pitchers they chose are high-schoolers.

What started on Day 1 Monday night -- when the Pirates took right-hander Jameson Taillon of The Woodlands High School in Texas second overall -- continued Tuesday, when Pittsburgh chose right-hander Stetson Allie from St. Edward High School in Ohio 52nd overall.

The Pirates started off Wednesday in similar fashion, though right-hander Jason Townsend, their first pick of the day, is a junior at Alabama. They took 15 pitchers on the Draft's final day.

Taillon and Allie have both worked with former Pirates pitcher David Evans, who is now the director of training and instruction at Baseball USA in Houston. The key for the Pirates will be signing each of the hard-throwing righties, who have scholarships to Rice and North Carolina, respectively.

"We knew that," Huntington said. "But the upside is very intriguing and something that allows you to look forward to the future with bright eyes."

Huntington added that negotiations with Taillon, who is represented by Randy and Alan Hendricks, will likely not take place for some time.

But both Huntington and scouting director Greg Smith felt the Pirates played to the strength of the Draft, sharing visions of Taillon and Allie as impact players for the organization in the years to come.

"We went through this round-by-round and pick-by-pick," Smith said. "We feel really good about the guys we got today."

Matt Fortuna is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.